Relationships Between Teachers and Administrators: Tensions With Instructional Coaches

Educators provide their perspectives regarding ongoing tensions between teachers and instructional coaches as a viral Twitter thread exposed tension points. Common themes include coaches taking additional time from teachers and inadequate training for coaches

  • “I really do not get the hate for instructional coaches. Someone explain it to me please.” —Elementary Teacher in New York
    • “One thing I’m hearing is that teachers don’t like coaches who act like admin. But if you take away the coaches, aren’t you now visited more frequently by admin? Coaches allow admin to focus on non-instructional duties and spend less time in the classroom.” —Elementary Teacher in New York
    • “Great question. I feel like some of the negativity comes from the ‘one more thing’ feeling.  We are so understaffed that we are asked to cover during prep periods almost daily on top of my student organizations after school and tutoring. It leaves little capacity for reflection.” —Math Teacher in Nevada
    • “The best instructional coaches were the ones that would co-teach. We each brought different strengths to the class and learned from each other. It has to be a partnership to work well.” —Teacher in Texas
    • “My issue is a salary spent on a professional who doesn’t work with children. We need reading teachers. interventionists. I don’t need a book study, curriculum review, emails full of links, weekly meetings with stuff to look over ‘when I have time’ I need hands on help with kids!” —Elementary Teacher in West Virginia 
    • “My dislike is more about how schools utilize coaches. Ours don’t coach at all- but manage testing and other admin tasks. Also IME schools don’t hire the right skill set for coaching. ICs need to be partners in teaching and learning.” —High School Teacher in Missouri 
    • “As a first year instructional coach I’m seeing it as ‘one more thing’ and others who don’t think they need the coaching. The other is that when coaches aren’t being utilized by the teachers or allowed to do the coaching role by admin, we do get roped into ‘admin’ tasks because we’re available.” —Instructional Coach
    • “Also, ‘admin’ tasks aren’t why we got into coaching and I dislike being asked to do those tasks. But when we’re in a place where the climate and culture are not conducive to coaching, pitching in to change climate and culture allows us to do our job in the future.” —Instructional Coach
    • “I encountered this years ago when I became a coach. I found that focusing on the teachers’ goals for student learning shifted the work away from feeling evaluative and made it more impactful.” —Instructional Coach in Colorado 
  • Many coaches know what to coach but they’re not trained how to coach. Process leads to trust which leads to collaboration. Teachers then feel they are being coached by people who care about them and their success.” —School Leader in California